As exhibitors from the Canadian Nationals are making choices about what images to use for their upcoming US Nationals promotions, and the advertising deadlines for the publications draw closer, some might be tempted to ask, “Why, with all the various forms of digital marketing available, should I include traditional print media in my promotional campaign?”
The answer:
Because there is something about a gorgeously designed cover on high quality paper that just says "pick me up and see what's inside". When these publications with stunning covers are made available to people strolling through the barns and vendor area at US Nationals in Oklahoma City, people will want to pick them up—people who are attracted to the cover and the images inside. They can take it home, and it will sit on their coffee table or desk without being turned on and without being searched for. It will sit there being patiently beautiful—and always available.
We have a different experience when we page through a magazine with a cup of coffee, or as a relaxing wind-down after a hectic day. A different experience than we have if we're looking at the same information on a screen. Why? The answer comes from neuroscience! I found an issue of Forbes magazine that addressed this very issue. If you want an in depth article with lots of citations click here! But for the short answer read on.
The best way to explain it is that information and images in a magazine or book are more "real" to our brains than when we see them on a screen. The very fact that we can touch a magazine, feel it and manipulate it, turn it front to back and handle it with our hands brings the information and images into the real, three dimensional world in which we exist. Images and information absorbed this way find a different storage place in our memories. A more lasting place. While I was writing this post, an image popped into my head that illustrates this need to "connect" images with touch. At the end of the 2017 Canadian National Show, the Jeff Janson Photography crew had a group picture taken in front of the sales booth.
In the foreground of the picture, you can see the array of monitors that the exhibitors had been peering at while they checked out their show proofs. When I first saw this picture, I can remember thinking, "Wow, look at all those finger prints".
Our monitors aren't touch screen activated. So why all the fingerprints? Could it be everyone was trying to make that "tactile connection"? To bring those beautiful memories into the actual world versus the virtual. Science seems to think so, and so do I!
Below is some information on publications and upcoming deadlines! This is for informational purposes and by no means complete. Contact the publication directly for more information.
National Horseman Arabian
To have your ad included you'll need to get your ad to them by September 20th. Ashley Lauren Gallún will be happy to help you with all the information.
Contact her at Ashley@nationalhorseman.com or 480-516-7635
Arabian Horse Life-Official Publication of the Arabian Horse Association
ISSUE FIVE
September 4 - New Build Ads
Due September 11 - Camera-Ready Ads Due
September 18 - To Press
Arabian Horse Times- Will have several issues going to US Nationals: the first deadline is August 25 and the second deadline is Sept 27th
Arabian Horse World
Next deadline August 25